Kevin "K.C." Kless

Kevin “K.C.” Kless passed away in the early morning of Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at Hospice of Cincinnati, his wife Rachel by his side. He was 44 years old, father to Sam and Mira, brother to Kyle and Michelle, son of Bill and Pat. The cause of death was a malignant brain tumor.

If you knew K.C., you’ve never known anyone else like him. He was a vegan yogi and world-class fantasy sports player, a lover of Broadway musicals and the Browns, a Latin speaker who could also conjure the most guttural “Steeeeerike!” during a ball game. He had a remarkable mind, and his particular genius was seeing relationships among disparate things, drawing connections as if solving a delightful cosmic puzzle. He was the best teacher. Impossibly, an even better husband and father. His family was everything to him.

K.C. was born November 4, 1979 to parents William and Patricia Kless and grew up in Twinsburg, Ohio. As a kid, K.C. played baseball with his little brother Kyle and learned to make art with his dad, an artist and teacher. His family moved to Aurora, Ohio, and K.C. became an indelible part of his new community, playing trombone in the marching band and graduating from Aurora High School in 1998. He earned degrees from Bowling Green State University and the University of Georgia, going on to become a Latin teacher for more than 15 years at Oakwood City Schools in Dayton and Indian Hill Middle School in Cincinnati.

He was the kind of teacher you remember for the rest of your life: a wildly creative Latin geek with a big, tender heart for his middle school students. In his classroom, kids built Roman forts from donut boxes and rocked out to Latin podcasts K.C. sang and illustrated. And it was through teaching that K.C. met his wife Rachel, a fellow Latin teacher at Mercy McAuley High School. They married December 29, 2007, in a ceremony for which K.C. wrote an original arrangement of a Prokofiev suite with lyrics by the ancient Latin poet Catullus. Together, Rachel and K.C. traveled to Rome, attended numerous Junior Classical League conventions and built community with other Cincinnati Latin teacher couples, informally known as the Latin In-Laws. Their son Sam was born in 2012 and their daughter Mira followed in 2020.

K.C. wholly embraced living and joy despite his difficult illness and serious prognosis. He and Rachel had a ritual of pausing for love and connection over good coffee after every doctor’s appointment. When aphasia made it difficult for him to converse comfortably, he and Sam sang familiar songs together. The Kless family held Miranda’s fourth birthday party the very weekend K.C. went into hospice. He celebrated with a vegan cupcake from his wheelchair. Throughout his illness, K.C.’s concern was never for himself; it was entirely for his family.

K.C. is survived by his wife Rachel (Ritchie) Kless, their children, Samuel and Miranda, his mother Patricia Kless, his brother Kyle Kless, his sister Michelle Swanson, his mother-in-law, Joan Ritchie, friends in many places and the communities of which he was a part: the American Classical League, Hope Lutheran Church, World Peace Yoga and the online communities ESPN Man’s League and UniWatch. He is preceded in death by his father William Kless and grandparents Margaret “Peggy” Hurban, Joseph Hurban, Celeste Kless, Eugene Kless, and father-in-law, Raymond Earl “Ray” Ritchie, Jr.

The Funeral Service was conducted on Friday, May 31, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. in the of the chapel of the Hope Lutheran Church in Cincinnati, Ohio with Pastor Christie Beckmann officiating. Interment was at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pall Bearers were Kyle Kless, Scott Keister, Sherwin Little, Alex Fries, Todd Wegenhart, and Steve Barnes.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Wyoming Fine Arts Center, where K.C. and Sam enjoyed a special father-son painting class over the winter.

New’s Monticello Funeral Home was honored to be in charge of the arrangements.

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